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Our favourite Withdean whinger eats up more public money
- Thread starter bhafc99
- Start date
No doubt the "cravat-wearing, champagne-quaffing, public school educated libertarian socialists at the Guardian see him as a hero of our time fighting the forces of repression."
No you're right, no one reads the Guardian these days.
No you're right, no one reads the Guardian these days.
Is he within stick distance?
Taybha
Whalewhine
[yt]yH2Qktes1uI[/yt]
Cheshire Cat
The most curious thing..
Have you actually read the article?
Protester sues police over surveillance database
Spy unit kept detailed record of 86-year-old John Catt's presence at more than 55 demonstrations over four-year period
- Rob Evans and Paul Lewis
- The Guardian, Thursday 9 February 2012
- Article history
An 86-year-old man is launching a landmark lawsuit against police chiefs who labelled him a "domestic extremist" and secretly recorded his political activities in minute detail.
Lawyers for John Catt are due to open the legal action at the high court on Thursday against a clandestine police unit that has been at the centre of controversy over its undercover infiltration of political groups.
Catt, who has no criminal record, was "shocked and terrified" when he discovered that police had kept a detailed record of his presence at more than 55 demonstrations over a four-year period.
The police had detailed how the Brighton pensioner took out his sketchpad and made drawings of demonstrations he attended. Also logged were slogans on his clothes and details of his appearance, such as "clean-shaven".
His legal action threatens to deal another blow to the secretive National Public Order Intelligence Unit, which has been covertly monitoring protesters since 1999.
The unit has recorded the activities of thousands of campaigners on a nationwide database. Defeat in the court case would put pressure on it to delete details of activists from the database.
A similar case in 2009 compelled the Metropolitan police to remove 40% of the photographs it held on a database of protesters after the court of appeal ruled that the force had unlawfully retained an image of an anti-war campaigner, Andrew Wood.
Over the past year the unit has been engulfed in criticism after the unmasking of Mark Kennedy, the undercover police officer who infiltrated the environmental movement for seven years. Last week, an official police watchdog criticised the conduct of Kennedy and his superiors at the unit.
The watchdog, Sir Dennis O'Connor of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, said the unit was unlikely to be justified in recording and retaining intelligence "in a number of cases".
Kennedy and other undercover police officers gathered secret intelligence that was fed into the database. The unit has also drawn on information from uniformed surveillance teams and telephone taps, informants in political groups, and companies to amass the secret files.
Catt's lawyers will argue that he should be permanently taken off the database as he is "committed to protesting through entirely peaceful means".
In legal papers, Catt has described how the police have recorded the political aims of the demonstrations he was at between 2005 and 2009. Some of the files contained "highly personalised" information about his appearance and "hearsay evidence and police officers' opinions", he has argued.
He highlighted how police recorded his arrival at one demonstration and that he "sat on a folding chair and appeared to be sketching".
At another demonstration, in March 2006, police noted that "John CATT arrived in his white Citroen Berlingo van. He removed several banners for the protesters to use and at the completion of the demo returned the same to the van. He was using his drawing pad to sketch a picture of the protest and the police presence."
On another occasion, police wrote that he was on a demonstration against Guantánamo Bay in September 2005, adding: "John CATT was seen wearing a Free Omar T-shirt, he was clean-shaven … John CATT was very quiet and was holding a board with orange people on it."
Police chiefs have argued that they are legally justified in maintaining the files on Catt, describing the surveillance as "minor". Lawyers for the police say Catt has been taking part in a campaign to close down a Brighton arms factory owned by the US firm EDO MBM Technology. This is a "campaign of illegality designed to pressurise EDO to cease its lawful business" and has led to a series of convictions of campaigners, according to the police.
Police say the surveillance of Catt is necessary because "his voluntary association at the Smash EDO protests forms part of a far wider picture of information which it is necessary for the police to continue to monitor in order to plan to maintain the peace, minimise the risks of criminal offending and adequately to detect and prosecute offenders".
Common as Mook
Not Posh as Fook
- Jul 26, 2004
- 5,633
However much of a tool this bloke is, it seems ridiculously heavy handed from the police.
Only if they had beaten him with sticks..............................
Kumquat
New member
- Mar 2, 2009
- 4,459
In the picture in the original link the policeman staring at him looks as if he's thinking "anyone got some sticks?"
Superphil
Dismember
I did, and from the tone of the report I thought it was from the Daily Mail or the Express, until I saw that someone had pointed out is was the guardian.
Does Catt think he is someone special? He's an interfering busybody, one of thousands that the police carry out surveillance on, in the interests of public safety. He may not have committed any criminal acts, but he puts himself in the spotlight. At least if he had been carrying out criminal activities there is a good chance he would have been caught.
As far as I can read no harm’s been done to him. I wonder if the workforces of the businesses he’s protested against have suffered.
Only if he wanders really near the fence.
GreersElbow
New member
Whilst the guy is obviously a bit of a wanker.
This is worrying for the rest of us, what about our personal liberties? Do you want the police watching your every move, regardless of whether we're breaking the law this is legalised voyeurism. Why on Earth would any one be fine with letting the police have this power? The state doesn't need to be watching our every backs, a citizens we should be allowed to peacefully demonstrate without being branded "domestic extremists". This essentially branding anyone with a different political opinion as enemy.
GreersElbow
New member
Hotchilidog
Well-known member
- Jan 24, 2009
- 8,869
Totally disagree. The man is entitled to LAWFULLY protest where he likes without the police treating him like a potential 'extremist'. We should be concerned that the police are wasting time and our money on putting legal protestors such as John Catt under such resource heavy surveillance rather than on REAL threats to the public and security. A crapload of money wasted on a soft target, I hope he wins his case.
This does not of course excuse the guy for being a total TOOL about the Albion and Withdean.
The bloke might have a point to an extent but he wasted so much public money on non-causes that quite frankly I couldn't care if they locked him without trial now. If he cared sooooooooo much for his causes he wouldn't live in a £750k house and expect the tax payer to pick up the tab. Legal aid is for people who can't afford to defend themselves - he can. Sell his house, buy a nice flat and he's still got over 1/2 million quid to use to fight his causes. Those he wins he could claim costs. I bet if that's what he had to do then he's be much less of a vocal nutter.
southstandandy
WEST STAND ANDY
- Jul 9, 2003
- 5,790
He's obviously a can short of a six pack and got nothing better to do. Sadly there are many like him. Twenty years ago when i worked for the local authority all sorts of odd balls turned up every week at the council complaining about anything and everything simply because they had nothing else to get up for. They just don't have any real interests or friends of their own - pretty sad really.
Nottseagull
Well-known member
Maybe she does..... of course, she would still get paid out of the public purse (or indirectly via a firm). Of course, all that money would contribute to the household income. Hmmm........
Superphil
Dismember
Its a work of fiction, it's a story.
I understand your sentiments, and he was lawfully protesting. You're always going to have a police presence at a protest, because some protesters are prepared to cause breaches of the peace, cause criminal damage and even endanger peoples safety, so there will always be a police presence. I don't think it wrong that they then gather intelligence, there are plenty who would consider it negligent if they didn't, it's not just Mr Catt they take note of, it's just that he is the one who makes a fuss about it. The police have never used the information they have gathered on him in any legal proceedings against him, probably because he hasn't done anything wrong in the eyes of the law, so what is the fuss about?
The only reason the information is now in the public domain is because mr Catt requested it, then went to the papers with it, I guess as we all know, he is an attention seeker, now we all know what he gets up to.
If the police were to miss a criminal act, criminal behaviour etc, whilst at a protest, crikey, people would come down on them like a ton of bricks for f***ing up. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't.
Mr Catt has nothing to worry about if he has done nothing wrong, and it wouldn't have been only him being watched. If the there was a bloke stood next to him at the arms factory protest, or also visiting the anti war exhibition and was also surveilled, and it turns out he was engaged in criminal activities, we'll all be glad the police gathered this information and were able to charge him.
Nottseagull
Well-known member
seagullsovergrimsby
#cpfctinpotclub
So what would happen if the Police didn't have a nutter watch-list ?